Innovation Summit - Meridian International Center

Speaker Biographies
Ngozi Nmezi was appointed Executive Director of the Office on African
Affairs in May 2011. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Nmezi served as a riskmanagement
specialist for the Department of Real Estate Services. Previously,
she was a proposal coordinator and partner liaison for the internationaldevelopment
wing of the global support-services firm AECOM and a contract
coordinator with the Health Services for Children with Special Needs and
the HSC Pediatric Center in the District of Columbia. At Howard University,
she was a Graduate Research Assistant for the Genetics of Recurrent Early
Onset Depression (genRED) study, sponsored by National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH). Ms. Nmezi developed her capstone research project around a
mental health study targeting African immigrant constituencies in the greater Washington, DC area
titled, “A transgenerational study: acculturation and depression amongst African immigrants.”
Jonathan Ortmans is the President of Global Entrepreneurship Week on
behalf of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and also serves as a Senior
Fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation as Chair of the Global
Entrepreneurship Congress. Previously, Mr. Ortmans served as executive
director of the Columbia Institute for Political Research, concentrating on
health care economic policy. Currently, he also serves as president of the
Public Forum Institute, an independent not-for-profit organization that enjoys
strong bi-partisan congressional support in fostering public discourse on
major issues of the day. He started his first business at the age of 19 in his
native United Kingdom, and his second at 34 following a stint on Capitol Hill
working for the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee focusing on trade
policy.
Maria Otero was sworn in as Under Secretary of State on August 10, 2009.
She also serves as the President’s Special Representative for Tibetan Issues.
Ms. Otero was formerly the president and CEO of ACCION International. She
is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on inclusive economic
growth, women’s issues and international development. Prior to ACCION, Ms.
Otero was the Economist for Latin America for the Women in Development
office of USAID. She also served for five years at the Centre for Development
and Population Activities (CEDPA). Ms. Otero was an adjunct professor
at Johns Hopkins’ Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS)
before joining the State Department. President Clinton appointed Ms. Otero
to the board of the United States Institute of Peace in 2000. In June 2006, Ms. Otero was appointed
by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the UN Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors.
Ms. Otero has chaired the board of Bread for the World, and also served on the boards of the
Calvert Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, the Inter-American Foundation and BRAC Holding
of Bangladesh. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Among many of Ms. Otero’s
awards and recognition includes selection by Newsweek in October 2005 as one of the United
States’ twenty most influential women.
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